


First Day

by WishLotion



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), Devil May Cry
Genre: Devil May Cry (Game), Fluff and Angst, Game: Resident Evil 2, M/M, Self-Indulgent, Sorry I edit the tags so much, Team Up, mostly angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2019-12-31 22:36:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18323339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishLotion/pseuds/WishLotion
Summary: Being a cop had ways been a goal for Leon. But after a week of staying put at home, he got a bit too lax and ended up sleeping in. On his way to work, he stopped in at a gas station and was saved by a white haired man in a red jacket...(I'm no good at summaries I'm sorry)





	1. Sleeping In is Ideal

_BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP_..

A sleepy gaze over at the obnoxious clock, and a slam down on the button to shut it off. Six thirty.. Oh shit. SIX THIRTY.

" Shitshitshit, it's already that late at night??? Shows me for tryin to sneak in a nap before my first shift. Shit. " Leon scrambled from his couch, tossing his alarm clock to where he was laying moments before and ran around his apartment, quickly pulling together his uniform, and make himself look presentable. "Some way to start my new job." He ran a comb through his long sweeping bangs before tossing it haphazardly into the sink and bouncing himself one legged into his navy blue uniform pants.

He was finally about to go into work,for the first time since he was hired. Leon was more than excited to get to meet his new coworkers, his new boss, get the lay of the police department. To begin a new chapter in his life.The usual things that one becomes acquainted with on one's first day of work.

It would have been last week, but they called him the day before he would have come in telling him to stay put for another week. When asked, the Chief only said something about there not being too much room at the moment and that it wasn't anything to worry too much about.

Leon crammed his wallet into his mouth and fumbled with his pants, finally managing to push through the barrier of his own design with a hearty chuckle that was stifled by his wallet, and fastened his pants button and quickly looped his belt around him.

Grabbing his car keys and putting his wallet into his pocket, he jumped into his shoes and bolted out the door, getting about four feet away before spinning back around to check and see if he had locked it, realizing he hadn't, and fumbling with the keys for a moment more.

Raccoon City was a fair drive and Leon was already going to be late by a ridiculous margin. It wasn't on purpose, but he was a man who enjoyed sleeping and taking naps. But being late on your first day? That was not exactly good grounds to keep your job.

After all his shenanigans, he was finally in his car. It took all of his willpower to not immediately try and peel out of his apartment complex and down the long dark stretch of road that lay between him and his new team. Leon felt a wave of excitement and joy sweep through him as he drove down the road, seein little to no other drivers down this stretch.

He popped his radio on. The antannae slowly began to rise from the corner of the car, and he turned the radio up, and dialed through the static to try and find a clear station. "C'mon.."He grumbled until he found a clear station. He almost wished it had stayed static. A loud, clear and firm voice rang in, clear as a bell.

" _We advise that all people stay far away from Raccoon City. The city is in a state of quarantine. Be advised to not Enter. This message will be on repeat until the crisis is over._ " Pause. One... Two.. Three.. It looped back to the beginning of the message, as if on cue.

Qurantine? That was.. News. Like. Big, big news. Why hadn't someone done a report on it? Leon swallowed whatever lump was in his throat and stared straight ahead. He knew it was inadvisable to go, but something was pulling him there regardless. He couldn't make himself turn the car around. The worry in his heart overtook him.

He had to see what had become of the police department.

Surely they would have been equipped to handle something along these lines. It had been converted from an old museum so they would have more room than most places, maybe even act as a secondary triage to the hospital assuming they could spare the doctors and medicine. But what kind of outbreak could it have been?

Leon felt himself press harder on the pedal. His curiosity was getting the better of him. He had to know if everyone was all night. He reached into his middle console, and pulled out a mix tape. Fumbling from his nerves, he slapped it into the cassette player and skipped to track three. 'One Week' by Barenaked Ladies came over his crackling speakers, and he steeled himself as he drove deeper into the darkest night,humming meekly to the song.

 

It was about an hour before his gas light came on, signaling him with a loud clicking sound. "Shit. I knew I should've filled up last night." Leon knew his midnight snack runs would come to bite him in the ass one day, but sometimes you don't want to think about that stuff and just dive into a bag of sour cream and onion chips. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair shaking, trying to rack his brain over where a station was.

'Wait..there's one a little further down the road! Just gotta get there quickly, before the gas decides to cut out on me!' He's a cop now.. Right? He's allowed to speed a little.. Right? It should negate out, this is an emergency after all. He looked left and right, as if he was being secretly monitored, and sped forward, determined to get himself to the station.

With a swift swipe into the next lane, Leon spun himself into the gas station, sidling himself beside a pump. He put the car in park and took a deep breath as he chuckled to himself at his own stupid plan. "Jeez. Won't be doing that again anytime soon." He put his wallet and keys in his pocket before climbing out of his car before coming to face the darkened gas station.

Closed? He took a step forward, reaching for his flashlight on his belt and unlatching it. He turned it on and shined it to the ground to adjust the light size. As he did, he noticed something glistening in the light. Something dark and red. Footprints. Dark, reddish brown foot prints, some scuffed from something sliding around on the ground. The thick stench of copper hung in the air. Blood. This was fresh.

A noise came from inside the gas station, the sound of something rolling along the ground. Leon swallowed a lump in his throat and slowly moved in, stepping into the destroyed gas station. Chips and snack foods lay open and dumped out onto the ground in a disarray, visibly crushed by the source of the foot prints.

Leon kept his light and gun held forward in front of him, as he stepped slowly and as lightly as he could, trying to be silent. He turned around one of the snack shelves and saw a man, clutching his neck and breathing shallowly. Immediately Leon bolstered his gun, quickly moving to the man's side. "Sir, can you hear me?" The man coughed and nodded, pointing to a wide open door, where the foot prints continued. He didn't want to leave the man, and looked at him puzzled. ".. First..aid.." the man choked and coughed roughly.

Leon looked to the doorway and quickly stood up, motioning that the man stay put. "Don't move, I'll head back there and get the kit, then come back for you okay??" With a rasp and nod, the man watched Leon quickly move through the doorway into the darkened storage room. Leon had one thought echoing through his mind. 'First Aid.'

God he hoped that he wouldn't be too late.


	2. Cola is Good,  Zombies not so much

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heads up, Things get nasty in this chapter, like gore wise.

The corridor to the back was cold, and any light coming in was from the flickering of the fridges, sitting still and humming with low electricity. Leon held his light out in front of him, moving quickly through and trying to avoid broken glass from cartons of beer that had been tipped in some sort of scuffle. 

 

The mess was the last thing to be focused on right now. Right now, he needed to focus on the first aid kit, and the man who was bleeding out and depending on him. 

 

From the far end of the hall, there were sounds of a scuffle. Prepping for the worst, He placed his hand on the handle of his gun. Shining his light along the back wall he spotted a man in a gas station uniform, holding another man against the wall, with both hands and struggling to keep him held still. "Freeze!"

 

The gas attendant turned his head to Leon, and waved a hand dismissively to him, letting one hand off of the other. "Officer I have this under con-" Without warning, the man who was against the wall spun on his heel and pushed the other to the ground biting deeply into the man's shoulder and neck, causing a bubbling scream to ring out from the uniformed mans torn throat. 

 

Leon couldn't help but be frozen in terror, with what raised its head to face him.

 

It glared up at him with a long stretching chunk of muscle and sinew connecting itself to the worker, whose crying and whimpering had gurgled to a sickening halt with blood pooling out of his mouth and down his neck. White sickly pale flesh, almost blue. Eyes frosted over and glassy, as if dead for some time,but still capable of making eye contact with a predatory gaze. And Leon was starting to feel like a mouse locked in a cats sight. 

 

It shuffled up with a growl, and moved towards Leon quickly, while he in turn stepped back and swallowed, taking aim and pulling the trigger. The bullet rang out from the chamber, lodging itself between the eyes of the..creature. But it did not falter, or stop its walk towards Leon. "Shit." A simple profanity as he weighed his next options. 

 

With two more shots, he hit the monster in man's clothing in the knees, capping and causing it to buckle. And hit the ground with a heavy crack as it slammed its skull down. It wasn't moving anymore. 

 

Seizing the sudden burst of the adrenaline, Leon looked around the storage room for the first aid kit. 

 

It was on top of a desk that had been hidden behind a few racks of product, and surrounded with many posters of swimsuit models, and other busty naked women in provactive clothing. Leon groaned uncomfortably at the display, grabbing the kit quickly. Something jingled and hit the ground as he did so. Keys?

 

 Leon set the kit down and quickly grabbed the keys labeled 'storage keys' before coming face to face once more with the creature,as it stood at the end of the row, licking where its chops would be, if they hadn't long been chewed off.

 

"Jesus Christ." Leon grabbed the kit once more, as the creature no longer saw fit to shuffle, and was now moving towards him super quickly. 

 

The racks were too heavy to just pull over onto the beast. _It was closer_. Leon didn't have the bullets to spare to keep shooting haphazardly, and was down to about five rounds. He would have to make these rounds count. He took aim and shot. _Missed_. Four Rounds. His nerves were gettin the best of him. He took a deep breath. No missing this time.

 

 _BANG_.

 

 _Direct hit_. A lucky one too, as the monsters head exploded in a fantastic gore firework, and it stopped, finally. 

 

Leon couldn't celebrate his good luck for long. The man was waiting for well over twelve minutes, and when you're bleeding out every single second counts.

 

Leon ran down the corridor, glass crunching under his shoes with every step as he went to push the door open. 

 

There was a heavy blockage preventing his way out, and Leon was afraid he may know all too well what it was. "Hey, what are you doing?" he called out desperately and banged his fist against the door.

 

Nothing but silence from the opposite side.

 

He held the kit tighter as his hand balled around the handle until his knuckles turned white as a ghost. He ran back into the office, stumbling over the two still corpses as he saw another door, one that would pop him back out behind the register. He grasped the door knob and pulled. Knowing his luck it was.. Yep, it was locked. At least he had the damn keys. Why was it a hassle and a half to get the hell OUT of a gas station?

 

With a twist of the key and a soft click, the door was unlocked. Leon pushed through quickly and jumped over the cash wrap, swiftly trying to get to the man who had asked him for help what felt like an eternity ago.

 

"Sir? Sir!" Leon cried out as he almost slid to the side of the man. He popped the kit open and held the man's wrist, trying to get a read on his heartbeat. 

 

No pulse. 

 

Leon rubbed his temples and closed the kit, standing back up with kit in tow. Two lives lost because of him.

 

He turned his back to face the entrance of the gas station and started to leave. He didn't even see it coming. 

 

With out realizing what happened he suddenly felt something grab him from behind and dig its teeth deep into his shoulder. He cried out and tried to push him off from behind but the grip on him was too tight, and getting tighter as the creature bit further into his collar bone like one does to a large cheeseburger. 

 

 _BANGBANG_.

 

The sound of two guns firing off at once, the released grip, the sudden burst of energy that the air had, as if they were at a metal concert. It was almost too much too fast. Leon held his shoulder and looked up to his savior, his guns smoking as the shells hit the ground. 

 

 

Leon coughed and moved away from his attacker quickly, as it stood back up,its attention fully on the man in the bright red coat. "Man, the service here always has been shitty, but not this bad before." A joke. A joke as if this was just a regular Wednesday night for this man. 

Leon looked outside and realized that there were still quite a few of those.. Things around, attracted by the noise of the gunfire. 

 

Leon reached into his pocket, getting his keys out and watched as the man got into the fridge and took a couple sodas out, humming lightheartedly. "We can't stay here, there's too many of those things." The other man only scoffed, but was lightly surprised when his wrist was tapped. "Come on, before they close in on us." Leon could hardly believe the words that were about to come out of his mouth. "As an officer of the law, it's my job to help civilians." Blegh. Corny.

 

That earned a rather deep chuckle. " 'Civilian', huh? Gotta admit, that's a new one." He turned to face Leon, tossing a bottle of the soda at Leon, who caught it after a light fumble. "Alright, lead the way." Leon held his keys and new cola cargo and made a mad sprint to the car, unlocking the doors and climbing into the front seat, wheeling it around to the front for him.

 

"This is.. Gonna be a real interestin' night, ain't it?" He laughed to himself and got in the car, cracking open his cold beverage as Leon peeled out of the parking lot and back down the road.

 

"Well if we're gonna be friends, you might as well tell me your name. Mine is Dante." He said between gulps of his drink. "My name is Leon. Leon Kennedy."

 

The trip to Raccoon City was turning into a real doozy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading this far, I appreciate it a lot. Sorry for the like.. Immediate update. Also I can't get the chapter title?? To stay put???


	3. Finally in the City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Should be almost done laying the brickwork here guys. Is this considered slow burn?? I've never written it before. Have some boys.

The only noise in the car was the sound of Leon's mixtape playing on low volume, and the soft humming of the air conditioner as they continued down the long stretch of road. "So." Dantes deep voice cut through the silence like a hot knife through butter. "Any _particular_ reason you're heading to Raccoon City?" He asked with a knowing tone. Rain started coming down in droves, making it a bit rough to see the road. 

 

Leon looked straight on, trying to not let on how horribly incompetent he truly felt in front of his new car mate. Leon flipped the wipers on."I was.. Away for a week. And I'm worried about my coworkers at the police department." Technically _not_ a lie. Not the truth either, but in times of crises it's not exactly a good idea to tell a civilian, in fact, the ONLY civilian who Leon had currently met who was still alive for that matter, to let them know their lives are in the hands of an complete rookie. 

 

Dante clucked his tongue and looked out the window, propping his feet up on the dashboard and cranked the seat all the way back to lay down. "How about you Dante? Why were you on the way to Raccoon City?" Leon said to redirect the question. Dante stared up out the window and thought to himself, before finally responding. "I guess you could say, I'm looking for a good time." He chuckled to himself a bit, lost in his own joke. 

 

"Seems to me if you wanted that you came at a bad time. City is a lot more fun in the summer."Staring forward, Leon swallowed at the sight of what lay before them, sprawling out over the horizon. "Jesus." Dante sat up, the seat belt catching him by the adam's apple. There it was, in all its bright glory. 

 

**Raccoon City**. 

 

From a distance it almost seemed like nothing was too wrong, but getting closer revealed the opposite. 

 The two guard posts made to prevent entry or exit from the city had been long emptied, and entering the city was incredibly simplistic. "I'm going to the police station, and I would feel a lot better if you stayed with me. Guns or no, they're going to run out of bullets at some point." Leon managed to muster out as they slid to a stop light. "And, I think we'd have more luck together than apart."

' _Jeez, if I didn't know any better Cop, I'd almost say you were a bit scared to be alone_.' Dante smirked, thinking to himself. "I.. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely terrified, but I don't want to just not help you." Leon rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as he let a small, and shaky sigh escape. It was almost as if Leon had read Dantes mind. 

Dante perked up a little, not expecting something quite so humble. Unexpected, to say the least. He wasn't entirely used to having someone try to protect HIM from danger. Nice change of pace, but ultimately unnecessary. 

 

Dante peered out the window only to spot some undead going to chow town on the immensely desiccated corpse of something only recognizable as a human by the bones that stood straight up, almost broken open. He kept watching as the undead turned to the car, realizing that they were about to have some meals on wheels. 

 

"Hey Officer, maybe now ain't the time to uphold traffic laws." Leon looked through Dantes window at the approaching zombies and grimaced, hitting the gas before forward before realizing the road ahead was completely blocked off, and zombies were circling in. 

 

Before they could process their next move, a loud blaring horn, from the sound of it a semi trucks, clocking in at about ninety with no signs of slowing down, and headed right for their car. 

 

Dante unbuckled and slammed the door open with a firm kick, creating some room between him and the zombies. "Dante what the he-" He grabbed Leon by the scruff of his collar with a grunt, and pulled him from driver's side to his own, to completely out of the car, doing a quick somersault with Leon tucked close to his chest before standing himself up quicklike. 

 

Just in time too.

 

Faster than anticipated, the truck SLAMMED into Leon's car, the sudden impact causing it to launch the truck up and land on its side, where it slid and sparked for quite aways before stopping. Leon felt his heart beat heavily in his chest as he remained close enough to Dante to hear his heart beat. He realized his situation and blushed, trying to calm himself down. 

 

"Hey uh.. Dante.. Care to..?" Leon never was good at articulating, when he was embarassed. "Hm? Not yet." Dante said as he got into a readied position, almost like he was anticipating something real bad. Then Leon saw it. A burning, burdgeoning fire had caught on the fuel trail from Leon's cars sparking and connected it to the semi, which seemed to be carrying.. Gas. Oh _fuck_.  

 

Leon clenched his eyes shut as he felt himself get pulled up into the air with what must have been about an eight foot vertical leap, (Though admittedly that could just be from his nerves) and he felt himself get let go at some point in the air. A loud clicking sound of heels hitting the ground startled him into opening his eyes, just in time to find himself in the air for a split second before landing delicately in Dantes arms, bridal style. His face kept burning.

 

 The gas truck finally exploded, debris and shrapnel going everywhere. Dante didn't even budge from the shockwave. 

 

"This is like, what the second time I've saved your skin now? If I do it one more time do you cancel some of my outstanding fines ?" His teasing was not helping the situation, and Leon couldn't help but let out a shy smile before quickly adjusting himself, gently, but quickly clambering out of his grip.

 

Leon cleared his throat and turned back to face him, extending a hand out to shake, the shy smile still on his face. "Thank you. I seem to keep getting into these situations where you have to save me.." with a small wry smirk, he took Leon's hand in his own and shook. Firm shake. Calloused hands. 

 

Then it hit Leon. How the actual fresh hell was this man able to jump so high? Jumping on top of a car is one thing, but they had some how ended up on the _OPPOSITE_ side of where the truck had hit. Maybe he was a professional basketball player? That would explain the callouses and incredible jump height. 

 

Leon thought tiredly and went to turn his head around to get a good lay of where they were, but was suddenly sharply reminded of the shoulder wound inflicted an hour ago. "Ow. I completely forgot about that."

 

"Yikes. That looks bad." Dantes demeanor changed as he got closer and reached out to look at it. ".. Oh d-don't worry. I'm sure they have a triage set up at the station." Leon tried to assure him.

 

Dante couldn't really argue with Leon on that. He sure was a little bit up tight and shy for a seasoned cop. "Whatever you say. Guess it's just all the more reason to get further to the station hm?" Leon nodded and looked around. "We should not be too awful far from there. I think we just ha-"

 

Leon drew his gun out at almost light speed, as zombies started to climb over the cars. "I'll lead, you follow." Leon looked back to Dante, who had already gotten his rather unwieldy looking sword off his back. "You got it. Just go!" Leon nodded and ran through through the only clear path of Zombies, with Dante in tow not too far behind. 

 

_'Gotta admit, when he tries to take charge it's real cute_.'

 


	4. The Station

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to yall for reading this thing that, admittedly started as a joke. Im having fun writin it, and I hope you are having fun reading it. Thank you. Have some affectionate boys.

When they finally got to the station, it was hardly a welcome sight. Broken glass and boarded up windows were enough to tell that things did not go as intended here.

Leon felt his chest tighten as he froze in place, staring straight ahead at the structure. The only thing that brought him back down to Earth was Dante, who had patted him on the back. "You alright there?" His tone was very genuine.

".. Somethings off." Was the only thing Leon could really force himself to say before making himself work through whatever scenario had haunted his brain for the moment. "Come on. Let's go in." Leon stepped up quickly, with the intent to let Dante in before he hit the gate locks on the door.

The front door to the station was open. Surprisingly. Leon took a step in first, gun out and flashlight in tow. "And why am I not surprised that it's next to pitch black in here?" Off in the distance, some far off gun shot sounds. "That sound.. We might not be alone in here." Leon said with light optimism as he looked around, as he heard a cough. " Hello?" he called out and ran into the main hall.

A heavily injured man was collapsed on the floor, breathing raspy. "Captain Branagh.." He knelt down beside him and helped him get to a couch. ".. Didn't anticipate seeing you again rookie. It's good to see you alive and well." He coughed into his sleeve. Leon couldn't tell if the blood there was from his wound or if it was from his cough, with how much came out of the captains mouth. "Captain.. Marvin, you need medical attention, let me get a kit or s-" Leon started to move away before Marvin grabbed him by the wrist, shaking his head.

"Put _yourself_ first. And do not hesitate to shoot those.. Things. Don't make my mistake." Marvin wasn't looking so good, in fact he was looking a bit pale. "Go fix yourself up, first and foremost." He motioned to Leon's shoulder as he forcibly sat himself up, looking for something on the police laptop that he had positioned in front of him.

Leon nodded and went down to the lower level of the main hall, quickly grabbing some bandages and such before finding himself in a small, sheet enclosed space with a cot. Dante poked his head in.

"Now, about that triage."Dante came through the little doorway and Leon let out a pained grunt as he took his bulletproof vest off and set it aside for a moment before starting on his shirt. He took a deep breath of relief from the ease of weight on his shoulders.

"Dante, if it isn't too much to ask could.. You help me dress this? I can't see my back too well after all." Dante took the peroxide and bandages as Leon managed to get his shirt completely off of his shoulders, down to around his belly.

The wound was deep. It was remarkable that he made it as far as he had, without significant blood loss. Leon sat on the cot facing away from Dante, his bare back showing all the damage of the evening. _Is this what this usually looked like? Blood and scrapes, cuts_? "Just as a formality, this is gonna hurt. A lot." He prepped the cotton pad and gently pushed it into the large gash marks along his neck and shoulders, causing Leon to hiss at the pain before biting his lip to quiet himself.

"So, _rookie_ huh?" Dante tried to brighten the situation a bit as he cleaned a little more of the wound. The peroxide bubbled effectively. Dante blew on the  bubbles while he waited for Leon's response.

Leon swallowed and wiped the sweat off his brow, speaking through the hurt."Sorry that I wasn't.. Up front. I didn't want you to feel like.. Your life was in the hands of a complete and total first timer. But that's really what I am. Today was my first day." Leon let out a pained chuckle as Dante started to wrap bandages around his wounds." It was my first day, and I _overslept_." Dante snorted a small laugh and inspected Leon's back for more large wounds.

" If it's any consolation, this is going to leave a really cool lookin' scar." Dante tied the wound off and rubbed Leon's back tenderly. Leon jumped a little but ultimately found himself leaning into Dantes unusually warm hands, and turning bright red. The rain had soaked his short completely through,and he had been a lot colder than he had wanted to admit. He felt quite a bit touch starved, and was trying to not fully immerse himself in how nice his hands felt. Not too soft.. Quite warm.. ' _Dammit Leon, stop thinking about his damn hands._ '

Leon cleared his throat. ".. I'm sorry I dragged you here, only to be wrong.If you want to leav-" He was cut abruptly short." Uh, you're not gonna get rid of me that easily." Dante smirked and gently rubbed the small of his back, before resting his whole hand there. Not moving it. He may be lingering a little too long there. Now it was his turn to be bright red, almost the same hue as his jacket.

He turned away from Leon and quickly drew his hand to himself. "N-now come on, get your shit back on." 'Was that a stutter?' Dante couldn't help but tease himself as he rushed out of the

Feeling his heart pounding in his chest, Leon stood up, buttoning his shirt and heading out of the little makeshift room. "Hey lovebirds, I got some information you might want." A thick cough rang through the air.

Leon and Dante went up the stairs to Marvin.  
"Good news boys, a lead that one of our other officers had about a small secret passageway out of here? It's legit. Bad news is that this place was devised to essentially be a wannabe puzzle house and aforementioned officer, Elliot, is the only one who has the codes and knows HOW to open them. "

" Ain't that just _usually_ how these things go? " Dante raised his arms in a half shrug before Marvin let out a weak laugh." This is a repurposed Museum, there's more puzzles here than paintings." An ominous warning." Doesn't help that half the squad are a bunch of dingbats who misplace the damn keys." _This was gonna be a long goddamn night_.

"Where can we find Elliot?" Leon said as he adjusted his vest over his button up. "Last I saw of him he was over on the east office side. You're probably gonna have to go in there a backwards way, we had to shutter it up. Too many of those damn.. Things."

Leon took a deep breath and reached into his hip pouch and reloaded his gun, while he had a minute to breathe." So plan is, we get to Elliot, have him help us with the puzzles, and the four of us all get out of here." Leon bolstered his gun once more.

Dante couldn't help but admire how optimistic he was. But.. He couldn't bear to break it to him that there was no way in hell Marvin was gonna be able to go with them. Man had about two hours left tops based on his injuries and his lack of a desire to get himself fixed up.

That sunny outlook on this cloudy bullshit night may be the only thing keeping him tethered here, and Dante was not about to break that spirit.

"Well then my good dude, let's mozy. Undead ain't gettin any deader, yknow?" Dante looked to Leon, lookin for one of those smiles. He asked and received, as Leon let a light smile play on his lips. _He was starting to become addicted to those grins._

The two made their way through the doors leading through the reception area. Step one was finding a damn map for this maze, and that seemed like the best bet. Sure enough, map located. Oof. This place.. Sure was **NOT** built like a museum. Little nooks and crannies everywhere.

Leon sighed and looked down at the map. "I guess the only way to get there right now is up a level and then we kind of.. Find the fire escape and go from there,and it looks like we just go straight down and do a loop. Jesus this place must have been hell to go through as a guest."

"Why turn a museum into a police station any way?" Dante mused to himself. "From what I'm to understand it was because the old station was falling apart, or into a sinkhole, one of the two. The museum had been empty for a while so with permission, the station was moved here and it expandedq.. I never thought there would be a hidden passageway around though." Leon mumbled to himself as they went back up the stairs and opened the first door.

_God this would have been unbearable if they didn't have a map_.

It was also good that Leon had an INCREDIBLE sense of direction and was rather adept at seein the doors, this would have taken forever alone.  
".. Leon." Dante spoke lowly as they entered a hall with zombies in it and drew his own guns from their hilt.

"I'll be the head of the train, you be the caboose. Choo Choo." Leon couldn't help but IMMEDIATELY be reminded of _'Crazy Train' by Ozzy Osborne._ God Leon missed his mix tape already. He'd have to make a new one as soon as they got out of this. _If they got out of this_. Leon groaned at the sudden intrusion of a dark thought, and shook his head as if to try and get rid of it.

Leon hopped behind Dante, who started running forward and shooting. "Straight ahead , and there will be a door to the stairs. We need to get up those and tow the third floor." Dante ran forward with Leon tailing behind him, a barrage of bullets hitting the floor, same as the bodies of the undead.

  
_They made a pretty good duo_. 


	5. The Licker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We gettin to more monsters, more angst and some more stuff in general, hope it's okay that I just posted like two chapters in one day.   
> Also I am so sorry I messed up, and I had this tagged as a completed work?? Unintentional, I am still getting used to this platform. But, enjoy some more boys.

  
The two had managed to finally get themselves to the Third floor. Leon was making a small note, that if the designer of this place was still alive, he was going to give them a _VERY_ stern talking to.

The man made barricades of garbage certainly didn't help, but the locked doors with specific card characters on them? Leon was glad he had stashed away a pen in his pockets, since he had to make a note of every little thing that was locked, every boarded up window and clogged hallway, or anythin unusual. God, this was _tedious_.

Leon felt Dante hovering behind him and held the map up a little for him to see. "Jeez... So at the end of the hall, behind _this_ door, we'll finally be at the stairs that Marvin told us about?" Dante didn't want to admit how tired he was getting of all the running to and fro. "Assuming that there's no more ass hattery along the way we should be golden." Leon reached for the doorknob and went to open the door.

" If that had been locked, I won't lie to you buddy, I _one hundred percent_ would have kicked that down. "Leon shared Dantes sentiment, the locked doors were getting to be quite a bit much. Leon opened the door with fervor and walked through, with Dante close behind him,weapons at the ready, while Leon (who had _insisted_ on taking point), was in front of him with his own pistol and flashlight aimed dead ahead.

Compared to what they had seen so far on the upper levels of the museum / police station combo meal, this was definitely a lot more dark. Darker in lighting and tone, particularly since the halls were essentially scattered with the parts of civilians and officers who hadn't been lucky. But.. What could have torn them apart? The zombies for the most part only went after other living things or fresh dead. It was uncomfortable to say the least.

Leon felt his stomach churn, and swallowed his unease. Dante felt his hairs on his arms strand straight up like a pin cushion. He was on high alert. Something was up for sure. This place was bigger than most of the other halls, and it had no right being as quiet as it was.

"I don't like this. Nope." Dante muttered to himself as Leon stepped in front of him, quietly moving forward. "We don't have a whole lot of choices, but we maybe should keep quiet. Sometimes things are this quiet because they're just waiting for a noise, any noise."

He had a point, and Dante had no problem keeping his mouth shut as they continued down the third story hall. They walked quickly and quietly, until they heard something click against the window.

An unwelcome slice in the silence. The clicking ran across the window at the far end of the hallway and Dante and Leon both tried to make out the shape as it screeched past the window. "What in the good god damn was that?" Leon muttered to Dante, who had taken to Leon's side. "It looked a bit.. Gecko-y. Gecko-like? Gecko-ish. And also incredibly nasty looking. A _nasty_ gecko." Dantes quiet rambling as they moved forward, while reassuring, didn't set Leon's mind at ease too much.

  
What the hell could that have been..? Whatever it was, Leon didn't feel comfortable being too far away from Dante. He felt.. So much safer around him. It felt.. Odd. Becoming so attached to someone only after a few hours. Just because it felt like a long stretch of time to Leon, didn't mean it felt the same way for Dante.

Was this love? Or just an over reaction to being touch starved? What if Dante didn't feel the same way? Worse, what if Dante didn't feel the same way, and upon learning about Leon's feelings, decided to stop being his friend?

Leon decided that, ultimately he would stay quiet about what his heart was saying. It was nothing more than that of a one sided crush, and he didn't want to jeopardize his friendship with his new companion. After all, this was also not the time nor place for it.

Leon, being lost in his own thoughts, had straggled quite far behind Dante. The only thing that snapped him back to reality was the sound of something crunching under his shoe.

He had somehow, completely missed a whole empty soda can. He winced at the loud echoing aluminum popping sound as he raised his foot. _Shit_.  
A screech echoed through the hall, and without warning, something jumped down to the ground in front of Leon.

It crawled towards him slowly, its long tongue dragging across the ground as it followed him, as he stepped back. It had no eyes. Meaning it hunted based on sound. And Leon had bumbled right into its claws.

It lunged at Leon, growling loudly and pinning him to the ground. It launched its tongue out of its mouth at an insane speed as it tried to catch Leon,who was holding it off with one arm, the monster seeing ample time to chomp down into it, biting deeply and releasing, causing Leon to cry out in agony.

And that was enough to get Dantes attention.

Dante spun around the corner almost sliding into the wall as he drew his guns and took aim, shooting the creature rapidly. It didn't even make the monster budge. Leon reached down for his belt and fumbled for something while the monsters tongue was stuck in the floor by Leon's face.

Got it! _Grenade_!

Leon shoved it in the creatures open maw, lodging it behind its horrid, jagged, long teeth as he rolled away from the confused beast, scuffling back towards Dante quickly and tackling him back behind the corner for coverage, pinning him to the ground as the grenade went off, sending chunks of the creature and wall crumbling and splintering around.

Leon opened his eyes and sat up, leaning over to peek around the corner before holding his chest and taking a deep breath in relief. "Well, that seemed to do it." He smiled weakly and looked to Dante, who was looking at Leon as if he was looking at stars themselves, his face lightly dusted a tender shade of pink as he crossed his legs and stared straight at Leon, taking a deep breath before managing to fully articulate himself.

"Leon. You have to know." He took Leon's shoulders and looked straight into his eyes. "That was the absolute rawest and coolest thing I have EVER seen someone do." Leon blushed and looked at his hands before looking up into his eyes. "Y-you're welcome?" He laughed sheepishly, and gently put his hands on Dantes to gently lift them up from his shoulders, his heart beating a mile a minute. If it was beating any more his heart would he audible.

Dante didn't budge, however. "Dante?" Dante leaned in just a little bit closer into him. Leon swallowed and he felt himself become a little bolder, perhaps from the adrenaline as Dante was soon pressing into Leon, who in turn wasn't sure entirely where to put his hands, choosing instead to place them on Dantes chest strap, going to tug on it before choosing against it and turning his face away from him for a moment. "Dan-.." Leon paused and cleared his throat. "D-dont you think we should finish what we were requested to?"

Dante sat back a little bit and was quiet a second, before giving Leon a wry smile and standing up. He reached a hand out to Leon to help him up, and Leon went for it before withdrawing his hand and standing up himself, as Dante took his hand and put it on his hips and turned back to the hallway.

' _What if Dante has been witness to more terrible things then just from tonight.. And I'm taking advantage of that?_ ' Leon couldn't help but feel his heart sink at the thought as he went to stand once more at Dantes side, trying to make himself seem a little colder. "L.. Let's continue on. We've gotta be close t-" "Yeah, yeah... I'll take point Leon. Why don't you.. Wrap your arm up." Dante seemed to disconnect himself as well. Leon clutched his chest and looked at Dante as he wandered ahead a bit.

_'It hurts but.. Maybe I should try and not show how I feel towards him quite so freely anymore. If I am taking advantage.. Then.. Then it's for the best.'_

Leon followed Dante quietly through the halls as he fumbled with the bandages and wrapped his arm up.

Dante was aching. He didn't get it. Was he reading the signals wrong? He had misread situations before but.. This didn't feel like that. Was Leon just.. Not into him? Jeez people were difficult to read sometimes. Dante had felt what he could describe as only immediate attraction towards Leon.

His kindness, his bravery. His trust, his compassion. What wasn't there TO like?? He was a bit of a bumbler but, he was serious where it mattered. Dante could relate to that.

Dante let a deep sigh out and tapped the toe of his boot on the ground twice before turning back to Leon. "Hey. Uh.. If I cro-" Gunfire, off in the distance broke Dantes concentration on Leon and he turned back around immediately. ".. That could be your cop friend. If there's gun fire, it's seldom for a good reason." Dante looked to Leon and they both ran to find the source of the gun fire, happening on a small room at the end of one of the halls, labeled 'watchman's room'. Loud banging, the sounds of hands against the shutters.

" HEY, Let me out of here!" an unfamiliar voice called out as Dante and Leon in tandem put their hands at the bottom of the grates and lifted up together. "Three, two, ONE." At one they lifted up with all their might, but the damn thing was stuck.

A balding man poked his head out from under the grate and reached out to Leon, who dropped the grate and went to help pull him through. "Elliot?"

"One and the same. You mus-" The bald man panted and held onto Leon as he struggled to pull him through, his legs suddenly being jerked back underneath the grate as he cried out in shock, before it just devolved into screams of pain as Dante tried to lift the grate higher, and Leon struggled to pull him through, until.. Something gave.

That something, being the lower half of his body. Leon gasped and let go of his arms as Elliot gurgled a dying breath and passed on.

Leon stared at the torso silently for a few moments, as Dante dropped the grate and looked to him. "Leon.. Buddy, you alright there?"

".. I can't.." Leon choked something back, that may have been a sob, before looking at the chest pocket of Elliots shirt, and took it out slowly. "..." Leon stood up and looked toward Dante as he looked at it. It was a small, notepad. Leon seemingly numbed himself over. ".. We should get this back to Marvin. He.. He'll make heads or tails of this." Dante went quiet and watched Leon try some doors ahead of them, unlocking them from their side as they found themselves back in the main hall.

Leon handed the notepad to Marvin and sat down on a seat, his hands folded under his chin as he bounced his knee.

_'This is all my fault. No one stays alive near me.'_


	6. A Pizza Promise in the making

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yall tired of my nonsensical titles yet?  
> This chapters a bit more brick work. It's gonna be slow and I apologize.

 

Leon hadn't moved in quite a while. Or at least, if he had, his movements were nothing more than an anxious leg bounce. This was not the time to have a bit of a break down, but Leon couldn't help but feel at fault for all of the things he had seen tonight.

The gas station attendant might still be alive if he had been quicker with the medicine kit. His coworker might still be alive if Leon hadn't of bumbled in and distracted him, in a situation that may have been easily controlled by one person. And Elliot...If Leon had not of let himself get distracted and if he had just hurried along..

Leon cupped his face in his hands and took a deep breath with a shudder, trying to pull himself together. His brain was fried and he was exhausted, but he couldn't give in so soon. He.. He could still try and save Marvin, and Dante was still alive after all.

  
_Dante_. Leon could feel his heart start pounding at the name echoing through his head alone. God he didn't want to have a crush but he was finding himself falling more and more for a older man. He needed to try and keep himself together.

"Leon. Y'alright?"

Leon felt himself jump a little bit at the mention of his name, and turned to face Dante, who had taken a seat beside him.  
"I think I just got a bit overloaded. Too much all at once, you know?"

Dante chuckled and patted Leon on the back a little bit roughly, trying to reassure him. "I bet it, its your first damn day."

Leon let out a light and fairly quiet scoff. ".. Maybe it isnt just today. I was told to stay away for a week.. And during that week my girlfriend broke up with me. This job was supposed to be my way of.. I don't know making myself move past this whole thing." Leon's tone was exhausted.

"...It ain't much, but after all this is over do you wanna go get a slice somewhere and just talk about it? Or not, we could just get pizza and chill out somewhere. " Dante said, standing himself up and extending a hand to Leon to help him from his seat.

Leon laughed a little laugh, out of desperation or something of the ilk and took Dante's hand. "Sounds good to me. I haven't eaten in since this like.. Eight this morning."

"Cool, sounds like a _date_ to me." He spun around on his heel, almost teasingly as Leon turned a shade of pink that almost made him seem glowing, stumbling as he tried to make a comment back, before Marvin's voice chimed in.

"Hey, come here a second you two." Marvin managed to cough out as he held his side with a loud groan. Leon and Dante quickly made their way to him. "Yes sir?" Leon managed to get out after a moment from collecting himself. Marvin held the little notebook that had been retrieved from Elliot out for Leon to take. 

"This here is the key to gettin the both of you out. There's a secret passage way that leads back outside. Tricky bit is.. Gettin the medallions. Lucky for us, our Elliot did most of the leg work and figured out the combinations to getting them loose."

Leon took the blood stained note book from him."Don't you mean the three of us? We could get you to a hosp-" "No." Marvin said loudly, and laid back in the seat, going to lay down on his side. "Don't worry about me. Just.. Focus on getting you two out." He seemed to slip into unconciousness.

Leon swallowed and turned to Dante, looking down at the notepad. "Lion statue is first in the list. It's just up on the landing too." Leon ran up the upstairs, while Dante was taking his sweet time as he followed him up, looking back at Marvin once before climbing up the stairs quickly. He was still alive, but who knew for how long?

Leon was mid puzzle, if one could call it such. It was more along the lines of a manual slot machine or a suitcase lock if one had little pictures instead of numbers. "Aaaaaand, got it." The medallion popped out of the lion statue with a clunking sound.Leon caught the heavy metal coin and shoved it in a hip pouch he had. 

"Now.. We need the unicorn and lady medallions. I think those are both upstairs, but.. I'm not too sure where, exactly. We could try going in through another way, we might have more luck finding rooms if we did it that way." Leon was simply muttering to himself, not exactly expecting a response. 

"Well there's that other section downstairs, we could hop through there. Looked like there was a breaker box next to it." Leon snapped his fingers and pointed at Dante in approval. "That is an EXCELLENT idea." Dante beamed, proud of himself as they tore down the stairs, to the taped up breaker box.

Dante scoffed and pulled his sword out, cutting rather precisely through the narrow corners of the box door, slicing through the tape easily. The door swung open quickly when Dante pulled his sword back, revealing a big lever. "Nicely done." Leon remarked as he pulled the switch down and walked under the rising shutters.

Leon propped his gun and flashlight back out in front of him as they walked through the well lit reception area, preparing himself for what could be on the other side of the side of the door. Leon caught himself pausing as he went for the doorknob."Dante, if you want to stay here with Marvin, I.. I understand. I'm not gonna force you to come with me through here." Dante elbowed Leon in the arm as he passed him, and opened the door to usher Leon in. "You're not gonna get rid of me that easily, now let's get looking for those medallions."

Leon took a deep breath and passed by Dante with a smile." Now come on. Let's clear out this hall." Leon stepped in front of Dante instinctively, light shining out in front of him as he slowly walked ahead of him to get a better lay of the land, and to make sure another one of those _things_ that climbed on walls weren't around.

Dante couldn't help but admittedly feel a bit too into the idea of being defended. He didn't need it in any regards, but seeing Leon try rather hard to make sure that Dante was safe was.. Oddly refreshing, to say the least.

The hallway was a lot darker than the reception area, much to Leons dismay. There were only two zombies in the hall, with a hall facing out to the windows. "I know where we are. This is around the west office." Leon took a clean shot at the zombies, nailing one square in the head, causing it to collapse. "And? That important for a reason?" Dante said as he took a hard swing at the other zombie, splitting it down the middle with his overly large sword. 

"Well, all of the offices have lost and founds. We may find something useful I there." Sounded like a solid destination plan as any, if it meant possibly finding a key to make navigating around this shit hole easier. "Sounds like we have a plan then."

"We should be able to get there from.. Oh." A makeshift barrier, as they popped around the corner. ".. Guess we gotta go through records to operations then." "Why is it always the long way in this place? Seems a bit weird to me that everything's gotta be locked or blocked off, or stuck behind some bullshit puzzle. "

"Id love to tell you but I'm not sure myself. It never occurred to me how weird it was until we started wandering through here.. I think I came here when I was a little kid but.. I don't remember if there were these many false halls and puzzle doors." Leon said as they trudged through to the end of the hall.

After a wrong turn or two, they ended up in front of the west office,.and Leon could already feel himself shaking. He had wanted this situation so long, where he would be here, opening these doors to a new lease on life, a new job.. But he didn't want it to have been like this.

Dante opened the door and entered the almost completely pitch black office. Streamers dangled from the ceiling, sparkling a metallic sheen uselessly when Leons flash light hit them. ".. Looks like they were getting ready for a big party or somethin." Dante mumbled as Leon passed by his coworkers desks and glanced down at them before pausing at a locked end desk, with a small note on it.

Leon read it quietly to himself and went back through the little pathways to each of his coworkers desks, quickly writing down their first names, before running back and putting his flashlight under his arm to fanagle with the locks.  
Something metallic dangled from the ceiling, glistened once more. Leon pointed the flashlight up. He immediately felt unease.

'Welcome Leon!' Sat suspended in mid air, on individualized letters printed on cardboard.

This wasn't any party. They had gotten things together to throw Leon welcoming party, and he felt that all too familiar feeling rise up in the back of his throat, before swallowing and surpressing it. He had cried enough for one night and didn't feel keen on doing so once more.

He looked down at what would have been his desk, which sat locked with two padlocks. There was a letter that sat on top of it, and he picked it up with a frown and read it aloud. "Welcome Newbie! Your first official orders are.. To get into your desk. Learn the first names of your coworkers and you will be able to get into your desk. Heads up though, Officer Scott won't make getting his name easy for you." Leon flipped the paper over to see if there was anything else written on it. One sentence seemingly scrawled in blood, just one and it made Leon's skin crawl as he said it aloud.

" _Be glad you aren't here newbie._ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed reading. The puzzles are an actual nightmare to write out, but I'm really happy to say that I have an idea of what I wanna do or take this story to now. I hope you guys stay tuned!


	7. Puzzles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Puzzles, more crushin' and that sort of thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for readin so far guys. I'm sorry that this is a bulky chapter. I'll make the next one more fun.

 

That line kind of sat in the air for a long time, before Leon set the letter aside and looked at Dante. "Hey Dante, Do you see any name plates on your side?" His tone was a bit stiffer than usual, as he was a bit put off from that eerie ending line. "Yeah. First names?" 

"Neil.. Elliot.. David." Leon input the letters NED into the first lock. It popped off with a resounding click. One lock left. "Okay.. Next side?" Puzzles were always easier with a second person to help you with them.

"Marvin....Rita..and I don't see the last name plate, Leon." Leon made his way to Dante and saw something as he passed Scott's Desk. A small diary,with the name 'George' sat closed underneath a small box of bullets.

Leon didn't feel like disrupting the last words of one of his possibly former coworkers, particularly because he believed he could almost already imagine what it was. Probably just a brief overview of the last few days,before ultimately ending on either a cliffhanger, or inevitable tragedy.  
  
With the initials MRG in place, the last lock popped open and Leon was finally able to get into his desk. Inside was.. A gun mod? An easy to attach one too. Leon picked it up and examined it closely while Dante joined him at his side and put his arm on his shoulder, reclining. "Hey it ain't the lost and found but I bet you're not complainin'. You scored just a magazine?"

Leon tried to keep himself standing up straight with the additional weight settling on his shoulder. It certainly wasn't because Dante had given him a bit of a surprise and he was trying not to be flustered, that's ridiculous. "It's just a higher capacity magazine, but OHH, man it will be nice to not have to fret about reloading so much." Leon said maybe a little bit too excitedly and put the new mag into his gun, a Matilda model. Standard issue for police officers in Racoon city, and now capable of holding more bullets. Nice.

Dante was, admittedly a little jealous as he too, was a fellow who quite enjoyed gun mods and modification.

Leon cleared his throat and looked over to Dante with a light uncertain smile. "Anyway, let's say we get up the stairs huh? I'd hate for more of those Lickers to come at us." Leon made his way to a door and groaned loudly. "Locked. Uggh, I feel this place physically aging me." Leon grumbled and spun around on his heel, heading back the way they came.

"Hey, Leon, real quick what the FUCK is a Licker?" Dante piped up finally, after getting over his initial confusion. "Uh.. Well. I just thought it seemed like a good name for those pink skinless things. The ones with the barbed tongues?" Leon rubbed the back of his neck as they went through the door they came in.

"Leon, Bud. That name? Not gonna lie it makes it sound kind of kinky." Dante snorted and followed after Leon.

Flicking the flashlight back on, Leon shone it down a hallway that ended in a broken window that was almost immediately out of the West Office. "ANYWAY, Down there is how we're going to find ourselves on the upper levels."

Dante snickered to himself as Leon dodged his statement. "How much you wanna bet somethings gonna try and come through that window?"

"I'm no expert but I'm going to say that's probably the most likely scenario, based on all of the horror movies I've watched." As if on cue, some shambling husk of a former human came straggling by and stopped at the window, trying to get in. Leon groaned and got ready to take a shot before the zombie fell backwards with a new hole in its noggin. The shot came from behind Leon.

Leon turned to Dante, who had one of his guns in his hands, the barrel smoking. "It sucks to be right all the time. ANYWAY;"He walked in front of Leon, before turning on his heel, replicating Leon's dodging tone from earlier nearly perfectly. "I won the bet, so what do I get?" His tone was quite flirtatious. 

With a small hum, Leon crossed his arms, and ducked beside Dante and thought. "Hmmm. Well, seeing as how I didn't really agree to the bet and we didn't really talk about any reward prior, im gonna have to lean to the side of nothing is your reward."

Leon was starting to maybe get a little too comfortable in Dantes presence, but he found himself unable to resist how contagious his laid back attitude. 

A small pouting but playful huff left Dante as he followed Leon up the stairs."What? That's lame." He couldn't help but snicker at how snarky the cop had become, seemingly over a short span of time. Maybe he was starting to get bolder. 

They soon were at the Second Floor landing, not that they could go anywhere too far in there. The shutter gate was down on one side, completely blocking it off. There was only one hall left on the floor to go in. Leon poked his head in the room. It was a locker room, and half of it was blocked off by a wall of steam that could asummedly only be passed by turning the steam off. By a valve. That was missing. 

These were staring to feel more and more deliberate and not incidental. 

Leon walked in the room with Dante close behind, when the locker popped open loudly, causing a corpse to fall out. Leon, as a response to being surprised jumped and found himself hugged onto Dante, his heart going like fifty miles per hour.

Feeling himself settle down a bit, Leon went to touch his own chest and took a deep breath and exhaled. "Jeez..that scared the absolute hell out of me." Leon let out a shaky laugh as he found himself calming down. Dante, had a light blush on his face, more surprised by the sudden warmth he felt when Leon huddled against him than the jumpscare corpse. "Yeah, same." He deadpanned.

Leon looked to Dante and frowned, realizing what he had done. Dantes face was a little red. Either Dante enjoyed being hugged.. Or, alternatively, Leon had made him mad. So obviously it was the latter.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry Dante, I didn't mean to uh.. Panic latch? Koala bear? Either way, it was not on purpose and I apologize."

A small chill went through Dante as he cleared his throat and put his hands on his hips and collected himself. ' _Of course, it was not on purpose. Why would it have been?'_ Dante brushed his hair back with a deep sigh before finally responding. 

" No worries Leon. You were startled, happens.. Happens to all of us. "He finished and loosely coughed." Hey aren't those bullets in there?", He quickly and rather immediately tried to jump to a new topic.

There were, in fact, bullets in the locker that the Zombie spilled out from. This prompted a quick search of the other lockers. Some bizzare red cylinders with the words 'flame rounds' typed on the side were in one.

Leon collected them and put them in his pouch,while Dante leaned against the door frame, quietly keeping an eye out while Leon scrounged around some more, seemingly lost in his own thoughts before being pulled back to Earth .

"Hey Dante? I've been meaning to ask you for a while now." Dante tensed up and looked at Leon, who had his back to him. " Is there anyone in the city you're looking for? I can't help but feel it's wrong for us to be here and you deal with all this nonsense because of me, only to not go somewhere you want to go. "Leon straightened his back out and turned to him.

" Well. Like I said, I'm just here lookin' for a good time. Don't worry too much about it. I'm having a good time here, _with you_. "Another flirtatious wink and smile, but it went unheard. Leon didn't smile or blush this time, his face only showing concern. 

"Are.. You sure?" Leon looked up at him and moved past him back onto the stairway. "I just.. It seems odd you'd want to come out this way and not have a real clear goal in mind is all."

Dante coughed and leant into the door frame once more, making direct eye contact with Leon. "I'm fine. I promise." His tone was rather serious and genuine, which gave Leon a small heart flutter. ' _Focus, Leon, Focus_.' Leon turned around to go up the stairs once more, motioning to Dante, who followed in close pursuit.

Up on the third floor, the wall had been completely broken through, no doors or nothing, just solid brick shattered about. "What in the world?" Leon mumbled to himself as he stepped through onto what looked to be crumbled bricks and door splinters. 

There was light, casting a shadow of what appeared to be an unnatural human physique. They took pause for a moment before peeking around the corner.

A statue. Some immense _ASSHOLE_ set it a lamp behind it to make a human shaped shadow.

  
The two of them were rightfully, very VERY annoyed. Annoyance went away fairly quickly when Leon saw a key on the desk.

The key was topped with the symbol of a spade on top. _Finally_ , they were starting to make some progress. 


	8. Another Medallion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Were like halfway done with the police hall stuff man, and thank goodness.

 

With the spade key finally located, they could finally start unlocking some doors they had come across, including the door in this very room that lead out onto the second floor of the Library, a room previously inaccessible.

Leon and Dante exited the dark room, illuminated by one lamp, to the brightly lit up and inviting library. Well, inviting save for the floor which had a couple of zombies crawling around on the ground, one of which eating the other. _Inviting_.

With a groan of disgust, Leon looked across down from the ladder and to Dante. "How do you wanna handle this situation?" Dante looked down the ladder at the shamblers and jumped down the ladder, landing on top of one, crushing it into the ground with all of his weight with a sickening crunching sound.

Dante drew his guns out and took aim at the other few zombies that had turned to focus solely on him, before letting absolute hell unleash.

If Leon had blinked, he would have missed it.

The bullets tore through the zombies into the bookshelves and books, causing the confetti of ancient police records to scatter into the air. Within moments, the few shambling zombies that had been in the room hit the ground, still once more with disgusting black ooze that was at one point blood spilling out from the wounds.

With a hearty chuckle, Dante looked up the ladder at Leon, shoving his guns into his holsters. He opened his arms up to Leon with a playful grin. "You gonna jump down or what?"

Leon snickered and knelt down in front of the ladder as he looked down at him, with a playful grin."How do I know you won't drop me?" "Well, you don't. Guess you just have to trust me, huh?" Leon smiled at the earnest answer. He took a step back as he stood up completely and leapt down into Dantes arms.

Dante caught him and held him bridal style, gently setting him down on the ground. "There you go bud."He patted Leon's back and looked to the door, going to unlatch the twist lock on it. " Huh." He poked his head out and he looked around." Hey, a full circle. _Nice_. This puts us back out in the main hall Leon."

" That makes things a bit easier at least. Let's go to the other side of the second floor, I bet we can get to the courtyard." Leon went through the doorway, Dante in tow not too far behind as they crossed the landing in the main hall. Leon peeked down in the center hall by the goddess statue, where Marvin lay. It seemed like he was still alive, as his chest rose and fell with deep breaths.

Leon looked away and proceeded back up the stairs to the other side of the second floor quickly, opening the door with the spade key.

It lead into a dark lonely stretch of hallway, with a big window at the end before turning left to another corner. Loud rain hit the glass as a thick lightning strike flashed through the windows and hit the ground so hard that the old museums windows shook loudly.

" _Yikes_ , that was a big one huh?" Dante remarked as they proceeded through the empty dark corridor cautiously. There was a huge wave of relief that went over Leon as soon as he realized that there were no zombies in this hall. He loosened his stance up a bit and they continued through the hall.

They didn't get too far before a something whizzed by the window quickly, and slammed into the building, causing the whole building to shake and Leon to fall backwards into Dante from the shock.  
"What in the _hell_ was that??"

They quickly made their way around and saw that it was a whole helicopter that had careened through their windows, burying its nose into the brick and glass of the station. "Holy shit. Glad we didn't go through here runnin'." Dante ran over to the downed copter to check out the cockpit. The pilot was dead. The cause was hard to see but he was definitely gone.

Leon joined Dante and let out a deep sigh at the sight of the dead pilot, turning to look out the window and down into the courtyard.

"Dante.. There's a woman at the gate." He stated simply, opening the door to the outside.Dante looked out the window, before joining him outside. "What the hell is she doing out there?" He whispered,maybe a bit too loudly. "Can't possibly imagine what she's doing here but I have to see if she needs help." Leon essentially ran down the stairs to the woman on the opposite side of the gate.

She was around Leon's height, maybe a little taller than him, and she was wearing a trench coat and sunglasses, looking on as if she was unphased by all of the chaos surrounding them.

"Ma'am, are you hurt?" Leon's voice shifted from that of his more lax tone that he had adopted around Dante, to a more professional one. Dante hadn't noticed until Leon shifted gears how stiff his voice was initially. He came to stand beside Leon and look through the chicken wire fence at the woman, who still seemed disinterested in the two of them.

"Ma'am?" Leon repeated. Her gaze was fixed on the helicopter that had planted itself deep into the frame of the wall. ".. It's on fire, you know. I wouldn't stay here too horribly long if I were you two."She turned in her bright red heels and walked the opposite direction, albeit rather briskly.

"Fire?" Leon turned to Dante and then back up where the Helicopter was, catching a brief glimpse of it in flames before a loud resounding boom echoed through the courtyard and finally activated the smoke alarms. Or more accurately, the dinner bells.

The noise seemingly called forth every zombie in a three mile radius, as shamblers that were once inactive, seemingly rose up from a nap and started trying to get at the gates. Leon tapped Dantes arm and they both quickly ran into the little side door that was right by the courtyard stairs.

"I wonder what she was up to. Seems suspicious to be hanging around right when a helicopter decides to collide into the damn building." Dante scoffed and shook his hair loose of the collected rain.

"I could be wrong, but.. It looked to me like she was either trying to find a way in, or she was looking for someone." Leon put his hands up in front of his face while Dante shook himself out like a dog after a bath. "She seemed really unphased by the zombies.. I wonder why that would be." Leon hummed to himself as the windows broke from the outside in the little hall they were in.

"Can't even have a moment to ourselves anymore."Dante joked while Leon jumped in front of him, going to take aim at one of the creatures climbing in through the window.

_\- click click click-_

" Oh shit."Leon fumbled around in one of his hip pouches, finding nothing. "Dante, I'm out!" Leon exclaimed as a zombie got in a little too close for comfort, Leon punching it as hard in the head as he could. It didn't do too much good though considering that it was getting close to Leon's neck, getting ready to reopen his wounds and scratching at his collar bone.

Dante didn't take too kindly to that.

He immediately kicked the creature off of Leon and started unloading into it, as Leon sat up and coughed, holding his neck and taking deep breaths as the zombie was essentially dissolved into sludge from the barrage of bullets. His attention turned immediately back to Leon, who was still on the ground, rubbing his neck and watching a bit in awe of the man on a rampage. 

"Leon, are you alright?" Dante picked him up and looked at his neck closely, as if inspecting something precious. "I'm fine, save for a few scratches and a bruised ass." Leon managed to get out as Dante looked him over. He was trying to joke to get Dante to lighten up, but Dante couldn't budge from his concerned expression.

Leon couldn't help but blush a bit sheepishly at the attention." Dante. I promise I'm okay, but we may want to find ourselves somewhere a bit more private if you're gonna be lookin like this?" He teased a little bit. Well, half teasing, as there were a couple of those zombies trying to get into the hall again.

Dante drew his guns back out and jumped in front of Leon." Get behind me and stay close." Leon nodded as Dante ran ahead, guns lighting up the darkened hall as he let loose. Leon, followed closely behind, only pausing for a moment.

He saw something, white and cylindrical on the ground. It looked like an a cathode based on the little wires sticking straight down.

Leon held it and caught back up with Dante, who had taken care of the creatures. The hall way was cleared out.

They got to a set of shutters, fully closed down on to the ground. There was a electrical panel with a cylinder matching the one Leon was holding. He popped the tube into place and pulled the small switch adjacent, the door rising up.

They were back in the watchmans office, based on the half corpse of Elliot on the ground. Leon winced as he stepped over the gore of the former officer, following Dante back into the main hall. "God damn this place is like a fuckin' maze."

Dante grunted and turned his attention back to Leon." Are you hurt?" His tone was concerned as he got close to Leon, looking him over once more.

"I told you I'm fine Dante. Are you? You turned white as a ghost back there. " Leon looked up at Dante with an expression that could only be described as gentle concern with his soft blue eyes, and Dante felt himself get a very flustered.

"I'm fine Leon. But what do we do now? We've explored this place up and down and haven't really found anymore of those damn medals." It was his turn to change the subject.

Why did Leon potentially getting hurt bother him so much? He didn't want to catch feelings for him. There was a difference between flirtation and joking, and then there was what Dante was feeling in his heart. _Affection_. Shit.

Leon frowned and looked back up the stairs at the second floor Landing. ".. I think I may have remembered where another one of the emblems was. It's in one of the lobbies up on the second floor." he looked down, embarrassed with himself. "I'm sorry for forgetting. This place isn't exactly easy to navigate."

"Do you remember EXACTLY where it is?" Dante tried to hide a bit of the impatience in his tone. Leon thought for a moment and nodded as he came to the conclusion. ".. I think I do yeah. I think we missed a door in the library. If we go through there, we can get the unicorn emblem."

Leon ran up the stairs quickly, leaving Dante who started jogging to catch up with him." Geez don't leave me behind, you don't have ammo!" He called after Leon, who had waited for him in the doorway.

They were getting closer to getting the hell out of here, and Dante couldn't really bring himself to be too upset with him. Leon and Dante passed through together.

After a few moments, they found themselves with the lion and unicorn emblems both in hand. 

Just one more to go. "Now.. Seeing as how we've been through most of the rooms.. It's safe to say that the lady is going to be somewhere on the third floor. And I think I have a hunch where..but it might be in storage." Dante sat down on a bench, taking a breather in the safe and admittedly pretty room.

Leon looked up at Dante and gently rubbed his own arm. ".. Hey.. Uh.. Dante." Dante turned his full attention to Leon and was completely blindsided by the officer pulling the sitting man into a soft, and appreciative hug. ".. Thank you, for saving me. Again. If I were alone that probably would have been it." He said flatly. His heart was going a mile a minute, and Dante could hear his heart through his bulletproof vest.

".. Yeah well. It's not exactly like you haven't been tryin' at almost every turn to protect me. Which.. You don't have to do. " Dante wrapped an arm around Leon and pulled him closer into the hug, maybe taking a bit too much advantage of the situation as he pulled Leon down with his other arm into his lap.

_Was it impulse? Was it affection?_

Whatever it was, Dante found himself looking up at Leon's bright red face, and found himself overcome with the desire to plant one on him.

He didn't need to, though.

Leon had nervously, but a bit boldly, closed the gap between the two of them, and leant his forehead down onto Dantes, gently cusping his face as he pressed his lips to Dantes.

Dante, was far from complaining about this situation and found himself working into the softness of the kiss, the two of them holding on to the other maybe a bit too much, but Leon found himself no longer the one in control of the situation, as Dante had taken charge.

_This was hardly the place or time, but the two of them had begun to slowly solve the puzzles within._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope yall wanted some cheesy romantic lines cus you got em comin in spades.


	9. Seperation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HOO boy these next few chapters are gonna be a little odd.
> 
> Starting after this one we will be getting different character perspectives for a little bit, but they will get back together before long!

 

Neither of them wanted to break the kiss.

If given the chance, they would have not pulled away, and perhaps would have gone further, right in front of the gigantic bronze statue of the unicorn.

Dante put his hand along Leon's cheek, rubbing a thumb along his cheek bones, finding light scrapes from the events of the evening.   
  
Leon found himself leaning into his incredibly warm hands, gently putting his own hand along Dantes, holding it in his own. His hands were very soft.

It was Leon who pulled away from it first, to catch his breath and try and settle the intense beating in his chest as he took deep breaths.

It felt like an eternity had passed since they both had kissed, when it couldn't have been more than a moment or so. When Leon came out of his kiss- drunk stupor he had found himself in Dantes lap, pressed against his chest.

Leon gave a light laugh as he sat himself beside Dante, who pouted slightly from the sensation of warmth moving away from his lap. ".. You're very warm, you know that?" Leon smiled up at the white haired man with possibly the sweetest smile he could have mustered. His tone was sheepish and a bit unsure, for what else could he have possibly said?

Dante couldn't help but smile and laugh a bit, keeping his hand on Leon's cheek as he turned to face him once more."I get that a lot." He cleared his throat and extended a hand to Leon as he stood up. "Let's get that last medal and get the hell out of this shit hole." Leon took his hand and got to his legs.

They left the lounge and entered the library once more. "I think there's only one way up to the third floor.. And it's through there." Leon pointed at the bookshelves that were sitting spaced apart, one of which had a jack underneath it. Inconsequential, really, since it looked like you could easily just jump it.

Dante hopped along with the gaps of the shelves, and ended up on the opposite end of the path.  
"Last jump might be a bit too far for you bud, I'll help you if you fall."

Leon watched him hop across, and followed his pattern quickly. The last shelf was a bit of a gap as anticipated, but Leon managed to make it with no problem.

Finally, the door to the third floor. Leon opened the door and poked his head through. It had brought them to the main hall once more, but unlike the bottom two floors this one was dark as the night itself.

There were one or two of those zombies around, but Dante took care of them ease. They happened on a door, the only unlocked one. And sure enough it lead into the storage room.

It was an eerie room, with no light coming in save for the one window behind the statue that was in a caged off area, likely for evidence lock up, at one point but that had been moved to the S.T.A.R.S office below.

Leon looked to Dante and pointed at the statue behind bars. "That's the last statue. But I don't know how we can get in, there's no do-"

 _That was his cue_. Dante had finally had it up to here with the stupid puzzles and bizzare backwards way that everything had been blocked off, and decided to make it known now. He bent the bars as wide open as he could. He was taking any and all opportunity to flex his muscles and show off in front of Leon, and by _GOD_ it was working.

Leon stared in awe,and put his hand over his chest to try and stay himself from swooning as Dante stepped through the bars. _Just how strong was he_? "I'll get this one. Read me the code." Dante called out to Leon, snapping him back to reality.

As requested, Leon read the code off to Dante, who quickly popped it into the mechanism. "Got it." He said, taking the medal from the statue before pausing a second. "Hey, not too shabby." Dante said as he bent down and picked something up.

Dante came through the bent bars door way and threw a decently sized box of bullets at Leon. "Here you go bud." Leon caught them and started loading his gun then and there, almost ecstatic.

 _They had finally done it_. All the medallions were theirs. All that was left was putting the medals into the statue in the main hall. Then Leon, Dante and Marvin could get out.

Leon and Dante came through the main hall door and went up the stairs to the goddess statue. "Marvin!" Leon exclaimed and went to the officers side and knelt down beside him.

Marvin groaned lowly. ".. Did you get all the medals?" His voice was quiet and low, and his breathing was haggard. ".. Yes sir, we have them right here." Marvin grunted and pulled a set of walkie talkies with full charge out from a bag beside him.

"... I'm giving these to you. You'll probably need them, based on the luck we've all been having these last few nights." Leon took them from him and shook his head. "Sir..you can come with us."

Leon knew he couldn't, despite what he had said. He knew that Marvin's time was coming to a sad, tragic close. He didn't want to believe it.

"You and I know I can't."He said, perhaps a bit angrily." You two need to get out of here. You two... Need to make it out of this." He sat still and clenched his side tightly.

Dante, during all of this had put the medals into the plaque.

The statue rose up and revealed a secret staircase that led down to a closed door.".. Leon." Dante called to him.".. You two.. Better get through this." Marvin struggled to get out through clenched teeth, coughing a significant amount of blood into his mouth. It began to pool and sputter from his the cracks of his lips.

Leon stood up with the brick like walkie talkies in hand, closing his eyes tightly. ".. Thank you for everything sir." Leon turned away, leaving Marvin behind one final time.

Leon and Dante got to the stair way when the statue started to close the way in shut.

".. I won't let him down." Leon muttered quietly to himself, handing Dante one of the walkie talkies. 

His demeanor toughened up a little bit more, if for no other reason than a defense mechanism. 

The small staircase led them down to a tiny and secluded office. It was quiet, niche and honestly, a bit more than comforting. Leon pressed his back against a book case and thought quietly to himself, while Dante sat on top of the old wooden desk.

The silence was thick and heavy, weighing the air down. The two needed and appreciated the quiet though. A small break, a breather.. Anything was welcome at this point.

Dante looked to Leon,and he couldn't help but think back to the kiss. His heart started fluttering at the thought of it and he realized something that made him  pause for a second. He wanted to do it again. Possibly again after that.

Dante wasn't entirely used to feeling like this.

With a clearing of his throat, he snapped himself and Leon both back to reality. 

Leon looked to him, as Dante let out a groan stretching himself out widely, a loud crackling sound coming from his shoulders.

"We should go on ahead and continue. We're so close to getting the hell out of here." Leon walked to Dante and held his hand out to help Dante off the desk. 

Dante took his hand, and held onto it as he hopped off. "Yeah. After all, the sooner we get out, the sooner we can have that pizza date huh?" He slapped Leon on the rump, eliciting a surprised yelp as he leapt forward a bit.

"Geez, I wasn't kidding around when I said I bruised that earlier you know." Leon snickered weakly and walked ahead of Dante. "Oh did you? I wouldn't know, I didn't see it. Want me to check and see _how_ bruised it is?" Dante raised an eyebrow at Leon flirtatiously as Leon laughed a little bit and shook his head. Dante was good at making him feel better, he noted to himself.

  
The hallway they were in was much unlike any of the halls in the police hall, and didn't look like anywhere else in the building. It felt..very industrial, from the steel beams and fluorescent lights, as opposed to the main police station. _What was this place_? 

The fans spinned lazily overhead as Leon and Dante continued down the hallway. Vats of something churned beside them in rows. "This seems friendly. Right?" Leon joked a little bit, trying to not let on how uncomfortable the silence of this area was making him. 

Because by God it was. 

Something large and heavy caused a shadow to cross over the lights above, the metal ceiling to bending down into itself a little bit, with a hellaciously loud roar echoing through the enclosed space with a endless echo. 

"OH yeah. Really friendly." Dante winced as he looked up, trying to catch a glimpse of the shambling mass that had darted over head.

Leon swallowed a lump in his throat dryly as he walked forward slowly, drawing his gun. "That was.. Unreasonably big." He stepped lightly along the grate flooring, suddenly a lot more cognizant of his footfall. 

The hall ended in a big room with lots of suspended grate pathways, one leading into a office, cut off by a heavy book case.

Leon cut ahead of Dante a bit to go move the book case for Dante. A bit of a formality admittedly, but he couldn't help but want to do something helpful.

As he was moving it aside, Leon heard something shuffle on the other side, slipping a bit.

"Hello?" Leon called as he lifted the shelf a bit more and knelt down. "Leon, what'd you find?" Dante asked as he tried to catch up to Leon.

"Excuse me?" Leon called out softly, leaning himself down a bit to crawl through the gap he made. "Someone there??"

Crouching under one of the desks, was a child. A terrified kid, who couldn't be more than twelve at most. "Hey?" Leon got into the office completely through crawling and stayed by the bookcase, to try not to scare her off.  
  
"Are you okay kiddo?" Leon reached a hand out to her. ".. I'm fine...but... He's coming." Leon raised an eyebrow as something big and heavy plodded onto the suspended path behind the bookcase.

A human, or what was once a human, stood behind them, lurching towards them. It was a bizzare looking... Thing. Hulking and huge, the largest part of it being a large thick arm, seemingly made mostly of thick musculature and the small, deteriorating shape of a man seemed to be absorbed into the arm, face half fused into it. A large, hulking eye opened widely, and wobbled around in search of something until it locked its gaze onto the girl in the office.

It started to lumber towards the office where Leon and the girl were, lumbering picking up to rapid stomping before it was shot square in its large yellowed eye.

"Hey now, what say you and me have a little waltz ourselves?" The nasty thing jumped up high, crashing its weight down on the metal grate, absolutely shattering it to shreds and shrapnel as it yelled at Dante, taking a hard swing.

  
With a swift and sweet back flip, Dante dodged it as the monster lodged its arm deeply into a water tank. "Leon, you and that kid get to safety." Dantes tone was unnaturally serious from the little time he and Leon had spent together. "I'll catch up to you, I promise."

Leon nodded trustingly, and looked to the girl. "Can you walk?" "Y-yeah, I can walk. Will your friend be okay?" The girl ran beside him, and Leon held his gun close to him as he ran through the halls. 

"He'll be fine, don't worry about him. My name is Leon. What's yours?"He asked, trying to change the subject for the poor girl. 

" My name is Sherry."

 

\--

  
Dante pulled his other gun out and took aim at the monster, who freed its arm from the tank. It grasped some thick metal piping from the wall and took a hard swing at Dante, who bounced back quickly.

He unleashed a heavy barrage of bullets into the monsters large protruding eye, causing the monster to double over and bellow out a pained roar, a mound of much smaller eyes exploding forth violently from his chest. Dante scoffed.

"Word of advice, asshole?" Dante pulled his sword out and stabbed it deep into the monsters chest, twisting it before drawing it back out with a sickening squelch.

"Maybe don't have your fuck-me lights be bright fucking orange."

It yowled in pain and picked itself up from the ground, blindsiding Dante with its pipe, knocking him back a long ways. He flew back, slamming his feet down to the ground to break his fall, doing a backwards somersault.

" Looks like this is gonna take a minute." He took aim once more, and pulled the trigger.

  
He wasn't aware of the eyes watching him from somewhere else, observing his every move.

- _meanwhile, in some lonely hidden corner of the police hal_ l-  
"Damn man's a psychopath, takin' on William like that." The main in the chair murmured to himself. "Now where did that brat run off to.." He clicked through the other security cameras, finally catching one of the hallways with a man in a police uniform, escorting a young girl quickly through the halls.

"There she is.. And who is that?" He glared at the screen, trying to get a good visual of the man's face. "..Can't believe that runt survived to this point.. But that may make things.. A bit easier." He stood up from his seat, the badge saying 'police chief' glittering in the light of the computer monitor.

"I should go catch up to those two." He started loading a pistol as he headed out the door. 

 

 


	10. Parking Garage Adventure

Their footsteps echoed loudly through the metal hallway as they ran through. 

 

They finally stopped, if for only a moment to catch their breath.

 

The echoing of the battle that Dante was locked in was a fair and far distance away, completely out of earshot. 

 

It may as well have been on a whole other planet. 

 

 

After Leon did a quick point check to make sure there was nothing pursuing the two of them, he sighed deeply and put his gun back in his holster before getting on his knees to talk to the much smaller girl. 

 

Leon had a brief moment of clarity, taking a deep breath to fully calm his nerves and try and put his mind at ease.

 

_She had to have been at the police station for a reason.. Right?_

 

"Now.. Sherry. Why... Why did you come to the police station?" He said in a calm and quiet sort of voice. Not quite a whisper, but still quiet. 

 

While a valid question, she didn't know how to respond. She collected her thoughts with a deep sigh. 

 

"I..um. I.. I came here to get help..I was at my house.. And Mom and Dad never came home and I thought it made sense to come to the police, but...then the outbreak happened and I uh.. I've been here since." 

 

".. How long have you been here Sherry?" Leon asked, a concerned expressjon going across his features. 

 

" I.. I think about five days? I kept hiding around the station, and then I found this place." 

 

Five days. Leon thought to himself. He knew if he was Sherry's age, he certainly wouldn't have made it five days hiding around. 

 

Sherry took pause for a moment, looking away from Leon to glance down and clutch at a golden locket around her neck. ".. M-my mom, she's still working I think.. I think I know how to get to where she is.." She looked back up at him, and realized she had found herself with a very important question.

 

"Will you come with me?" 

 

Leon knew the answer before she had even asked, and he was almost certain she also knew. 

 

"Of course I will. I couldn't just let you run around with all of these monsters and.. God knows what else wandering around." 

 

 

Leon stood up to his full height and stretched himself, his back popping a bit too much. Thankfully inaudible. But oof, he felt it. 

 

He was _twenty-one_ and the stress of the night had caused his body to start snapping and popping like a _fifty_ year old. The notion to him was a bit uncomfortable tonsay the least. 

 

They continued down the hallway, until finally, they reached the end of the hall. 

 

No more doors, just a ladder that seemed to stretch on forever. 

 

Leon looked to Sherry and then back up the ladder. It was a thick ladder that was bolted into the wall. It was new and well maintained, a small miracle in an otherwise futilistic and bullshit night. 

 

"Sherry, I'm going to get on the ladder first so I can open the hatch at the top and check for any more of those monsters. Stay a few steps behind me, okay?" 

 

Sherry nodded and watched Leon climb onto the ladder, following him as he went up a bit quickly, as if eager to get out into somewhere, hopefully a bit more wide and breathable. 

 

His prayer was answered.

 

He opened the latch-door cautiously, peering out.

The coast was clear. Leon stepped out and reached down to Sherry, to lift her up.

 

She took his hand, gripping it tightly and Leon started to lift her out of the hole.

 

Thats when he heard a low, growling sound, accompanied by a dripping noise. Shit. 

 

He held Sherry's hand tightly, as she at this point was half in the hatch half out. Leon looked left and right trying to place where the sound was coming from.

 

A set of glowing, white eyes loomed closer ever so slowly. 

 

The husk of what was once a Doberman walked forward, drool pooling out of its mouth onto the ground. Its ribcage and musclature along its face being half sinew, with bone and teeth jutting out in awkward ways from places that shouldn't have teeth. 

 

It had locked eyes on the kneeling cop, and took running to him, at a speed that was considered unreasonably fast for a dog. 

 

Leon, with his available hand, pulled his pistol out quickly, taking aim at the feral zombie animal and pull the trigger, causing Sherry to jump a bit from the gunshot, as the still carcass of the dog hit the ground in front of the hatch, with a dull thud. 

 

Perfect Headshot.

 

Leon pulled Sherry out of the hole swiftly, sitting her on the hatch side. Sherry pointed forward and cried, "Leon, behind you!" As another dog ran at them from the corner took a flying lunge at Leon.

 

Leon grimaced and took aim once more at this beast, missing as it got to the point of no return. He grimaced and stood up quickly to make sure that it didn't see Sherry, bracing his arms in front of his face. 

 

It sunk its teeth into his wrist, tearing at it and trying to rip his arm clean from his socket with a ferocious tug. 

 

He yelled out and shot at it once more, managing to stun it enough for him to kick it away, if only for a moment so Leon could collect himself and take aim again. His wrist, jittery from the pain made aiming difficult. 

 

Regardless, he fired. Despite unloading a solid clip into the animal, it rose and ran at Leon once again. 

 

One last pull of the trigger. 

 

Within a remarkable instant , the heavy limp body of the rotting animal landed at Leon's feet. 

 

Leon looked at it and then back to Sherry, reaching out for her once more. She took his hand and they started for the grated entrance to the parking garage, going to the small electric box to the side. 

 

Leon inspected it for a moment, wincing with realization as he shook the gates. "Damn. You need a key card to get the door to open..I haven't been issued one yet either. " He grit his teeth and rubbed the back of his head. "Or we could lift it up I suppose.." He wrapped his fingers around the bottom of the grate and pulled up, to no avail. "Shit." 

 

As if waiting for a cue, a voice chimed out from a shadow. "Sherry?" An older heavy set man stepped from the darkness, his brow sweating. "There you are Sherry, I've been looking all over the place for you." His voice was.. Saccharine, to say the least. It was dripping with something that Leon couldn't quite identify, though it did make him feel incredibly uneasy. His eyes had a bizzare gleam to them. 

 

Sherry naturally took a step back, hiding herself a little behind Leon. Leon gently put a hand on her head, like a big brother would do to reassure a younger sibling. 

 

"Chief Irons?" Leon's tone, while relieved also did not reveal how incredibly uncomfortable he truly was by the immense aura the man was exuding. "Y-you're alive?" Leon took a step back with Sherry as he came closer. 

 

"Yes.. I am."He turned his gaze to Leon, eyes locking on to him as he quickdrew his pistol from the holster belt with a glare at Leon." Hands on your head, get on your knees. Now."

 

Leons heart sank a bit." Chief, it's me, Leo-" 

 

The chief shot a warning shot that whizzed by Leon's ear, shattering the glass of a car window, causing glass to fly every where. "I didn't ask for your life story. On your knees, NOW." 

 

Leon swallowed, and knelt down. "What are the charges? " His tone was steady, but confused. 

 

"Reckless child endangerment for a start, how's that?" His tone was almost mocking. 

 

Sherry stepped back behind him, stopping only when a large ziptie landed at her feet. "Sherry, tie him up." Irons boomed from where he stood, gun pointed at Leon. 

 

She was scared, and no match for the man who she was easily a solid four feet smaller than. With a soft utterance of an apology, she quickly zip tied Leon's hands together. 

 

Once Leon was tied, Irons' grabbed something from his pocket, shaking as he inserted a card into the mechanism beside the door. It started to rise up. 

 

Leon grit his teeth, glaring at Irons. 

"Chief, Please don't do th-" 

 

Irons' slammed his fist into Leon's cheekbone, causing Leons face to collide into the asphalt. Sherry covered her mouth to stifle a cry. 

 

"Now Sherry, you're gonna come with me." Irons' attention was back to the child and he walked to her.

 

"I don't.." The chief didn't let her even finish that thought, as he pointed the gun down at the downed Leon. 

 

"I'm not going to repeat myself Sherry. Come with me or Leon **DIES**. " A bead of sweat rolled down the chief's forehead as he readied his gun with a click. 

 

"Okay, okay!! I'll go." She swallowed hard, seeing the gun glint in the poor lighting of the parking garage. "Y-you better.. Be taking me to my mother." She felt a small jolt of courage as she saw Leon scuttle from his spot quietly, trying to get to a piece of glass from the window the bullet had destroyed. 

 

"You don't get to tell me how to do my job." Irons grabbed Sherry brusquely by the arm, dragging her through the parking garage opening, slamming the button to the shutter. The shutter began to close. 

 

Leon carved through the plastic of the zip ties as fast as he could. He felt the glass slide and cut against his wrists, before finally setting himself loose and making a mad dash for the shutter. It closed with a resounding click and clatter as Leon essentially ran into it, pounding a bloodied fist against the gate. 

 

Sherry was screaming out in the distance as she was dragged, and Leon tried lifting the grate up. "You.. Rat bastard." He mumbled under his breath, punching against the door once more before stepping back and looking around. 

 

That immense asshole had to have come from somewhere. He may not have had the full lay out of the place but with those huge dogs hanging around.. It's not likely he was just out in the open. 

 

He stepped back once more, and heard something click under his boot.

 

"What in the world?" He looked down and moved the toe of his boot aside, revealing the glimmering gold of a locket. Sherry's locket. 

 

Leon took a deep breath and picked the locket up, putting it into his pocket. 

 

This night was getting shittier and shittier by the moment. 

 

Taking a glance down, he noted a door ajar. It's light flickered 

 

"That must be where Irons came from." He sprinted to the door to the small watchmans room. 

 

It was a meager sized room. Just a watchman post, and an elevator.. An elevator, that was barred off. 

"Fucking fantastic." He turned to get back to the garage, hearing a low growling noise, once again. 

 

In the doorway stood the mangiest of the dogs he had seen yet. Leon reached for his gun quickly, trying to take it out of its holster. 

 

No use however, it wouldn't budge. 

 

He tugged once more, with no avail. It truly was stuck in there, and unable to be taken out. 

 

The dog bent its legs back and readied itself for a lunge before a shot rang out through the garage once again,the dog falling dead in the doorway, revealing a tall woman in black heels and a tasteful coat. The same woman that was at the gates before! 

 

"Bad luck seems to follow you wherever you go, hm?"  The voice was smooth as silk. 

 

Leon cleared his throat. "Thank you for saving me." He extended a hand out to shake hers, for her to move it aside as she walked to the elevator. ".. Uh. My name is Leon Kennedy."

 

"Leon..You and your.. friend should leave this place." She turned on her heel and moved past Leon once more, heading to a different set of doors. 

 

"I can't.. The parking garage is closed and you need a card to get in and out of it." Leon crossed his arms in thought for a moment. "How did you get in??" 

 

She ignored his question and opened a set of double doors. 

 

He started to pursue, when Leon looked to the hatch, hearing something coming up. 

 

Dante poked his head out from the hatch and looked around, seeing the bodies of dogs and broken glass all over the ground, with the flashing police lights behind the shutter.

 

"Hey Leon, what did I miss?" 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, thanks for being so patient with me.
> 
> Last tail end of April to now had been an ABSOLUTE shit show. Without going too deep into it, it greatly interfered with writing this chapter.
> 
> I wanted to get it out for you all to read though, since I am having a lot of fun writing this series for you all to read, and I'm sorry it took so long to get out.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I may have a new story on the way soon. Thanks again, and enjoy.


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